Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Project (DDEP): Exploring Climatic and Human Drivers of Fire Regime in a High-Elevation Mexican Forest

Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff AZ

Investigators

Abstract

In previous research investigating climatic influences on historical fire regimes in the Sierra Madre Oriental of northern Mexico, researchers found that El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) effects on fire occurrence have changed over time. Before the 1830s, ENSO effects were significantly correlated with the occurrence of fire. After the 1830s, no significant relationship between fire and ENSO effects were reported. More recently, researchers have found a correlation between ENSO events and fire in the northern Mexico sites of the Sierra Madre. The changing impacts in those sites in Mexico are intriguing: have these changes occurred elsewhere in Mexico? Or is the northeastern Mexico site unique due to its location in a transition zone where ENSO events switch from drying to wetting? This Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement award will support graduate student Larissa Yocom, under the supervision of Dr. Peter Fulé of Northern Arizona University, in studying the climatic and human drivers of fire regime in a high-elevation Mexican forest. In collaboration with Dr. Jose Villanueva-Diaz of Mexico?s Instituto Nacional de Investigacion Forestal y Agropecuaria (INIFAP), Dr. Fulé and Ms. Yocom will establish a new field site in Parque Nacional Pico de Orizaba, Mexico, to investigate the changing effects of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) on fires in central Mexico. Ms. Yocom will spend 21 days at the field site gathering tree ring data from fire-scarred trees, and will work with Drs. Villanueva-Diaz and Fulé to correlate these data with historical ENSO patterns. The project will expand the current North American fire-climate network substantially southward, allowing a better understanding of the geographical relationship between ENSO effects and fire frequency.